
Class 6 R I fe g 



PRESENTED I'.Y 



Contemporaneous Pagan 

Views of the Early 

Christians 



An Address by 
WILLIAM HOLCOMBE THOMAS 



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Contemporaneous Pagan 

Views of the Early 

Christians 



An Address by 

WILLIAM HOLCOMBE THOMAS 

Delivered before 

The Busy People's Bible Class, of Montgomery, Sunday, 

Nov. 7, 1909, 

also before 

The Mt. Meigs District S. S. Convention, held at Mathews, 

Ala., Nov. 21, 1909. 




Montgomery, Ala.: 

The Paragon Press 

1909 



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Montgomery, Ala., Nov. 11, 1909. 
Judge W. H. Thomas, 

Dear Sir : At the earnest request of my Busy People's 
Bible Class as well as my own, we ask that you have 
printed the able talk you gave us on Sunday, Nov. 7th 
on "Contemporaneous Pagan Views of the Early 
Christians." By so doing you will greatly oblige us. 

Respectfully, 

B. M. WASHBURN, 
Teacher of the Busy People's Bible Class. 



Otv 10 190* 



CONTEMPORANEOUS PAGAN VIEWS OF THE 
EARLY CHRISTIANS. 



How many of us have desired to know the words of 
confirmation from contemporary pagan historians of 
Christ and His early followers! 

Have we not wondered that such changes of ethical 
standards and religious thought should have failed to be 
generally noted by authors of the time? 

I do not detract from our Biblical history to say that 
we expect some part of the history of Christianity to 
have been written by pagan historians. It has often been 
my purpose to look for these witnesses and have their 
words of testimony. If they had not chronicled the mo- 
mentous fact — to present day followers of Christ — it 
would be of little moment; since they have done so, we 
treasure it as an important part of the history of our 
religion. 

Before introducing the witnesses, I may say that the 
modern Italian historian, Ferrero, writes of the time of 
Nero as follows: 

"Surely he first shed Christian blood, but if we con- 
sider the tendency he represented in Roman history, one 
could hardly classify him among the great enemies of 
Christianity. Augustus and Tiberius were, without 
knowing them, two great enemies of the Christian teach- 
ings because they sought by all means to reinforce the 
great Roman tradition, and struggled against everything 
that should one day form the essence of Christianity; 
cosmopolitan, mysticism, the domination of intellectual 
people, the influence of the philosophical and metaphysi- 
cal spirit on life. Nero, on the contrary, with his re- 
peated efforts to spread Orientalism in Rome, and chiefly 
with his taste for art, was unconsciously a powerful 
collaborator of future Christian propaganda. 

Nero and Saint Paul, the man that wished to enjoy all 



and the man that suffered all, were, in their own time, 
two extreme antitheses ; but little by little, with the pass- 
ing of centuries, they became two collaborators. While 
one suffered hunger and persecution to preach the doc- 
trine of redemption, the other, to amuse himself, called 
to Rome and to Italy the goldsmiths, weavers, sculptors, 
painters, architects, musicians, whom Rome had always 
rebuffed. 

Both men disappeared, cut off by the violent current of 
their epoch ; centuries went by ; the name of the Emperor 
grew infamous, and that of the tent-maker radiated 
glory. But in the midst of the immense disorder that ac- 
companied the dissolution of the Roman Empire, when 
the bonds among men relaxed and the human mind seem- 
ed to become incapable of reasoning and understanding, 
the disciples of the saint realized that the goldsmiths, 
weavers, sculptors, painters, architects and musicians of 
the Emperor could collect the masses around the churches 
and make them patiently listen to what they could still 
comprehend of Paul's sublime morality. When you re- 
gard St. Mark's or Notre Dame or any other stupendous 
cathedral of the middle ages, like museums for the works 
of art they hold, you see beam in the sunshine the lumi- 
nous symbol of this paradoxical alliance between victim 
and executioner." 

Since it was Nero's persecutions that helped to point 
the Roman world to the lessons taught by St. Paul, and 
since the Emperor's teacher and adviser was Seneca, and 
it is an old question, "the relation of Seneca to Chris- 
tianity," it is well that we say of him, he was born about 
4 B. C, in 49 was entrusted with the education of Nero, 
and later exercised joint power with the praetorian pre- 
fect Burrus. Some have thought it not unfair to inquire 
of the system of philosophy he taught, whether the same 
flaw in it which made so great a teacher and writer as 
Seneca himself one of the most notorious usurers of 



—5— 

Rome, might have been instrumental in making Nero 
what he became in the later years of his reign. 

This is charging Seneca unduly, for we know he did 
wisely advise Nero in the early part of his reign and 
later withdrew from the responsibility of the vices that 
culminated in the persecutions of the Christians just af- 
ter the burning of Rome, and it is not claiming for him 
too much to say he must have opposed the Emperor's ex- 
cuses for on Nero's request he suicided. Hence I find 
it difficult to accuse one who could attribute to his pilot 
this famous prayer, "Oh, Neptune, you may save me if 
you will; you may sink me if you will; but whatever 
happens I shall keep my rudder true." 

Unfortunately, Seneca makes no reference to Chris- 
tianity, yet it is thought that so much in his writings 
partakes of the spirit of the Apostles that he has been 
credited with having been influenced by them. It is 
known that his brother, Gallio, met St. Paul in Corinth 
and that Burrus, his colleague and intimate friend was 
the Captain of the Praetorian Guards, by whom in 61 
St. Paul was brought to Rome. On the assassination of 
Burrus in 62, Seneca petitioned for leave to retire from 
court, and virtually did withdraw, yet two years there- 
after he was forced by the Emperor to suicide, and but 
a little while before St. Paul was supposedly put to death 
by Roman authority. 

Looking next to the historian of the time for informa- 
tion, we find Tacitus, (55-117), giving his famous ac- 
count of the burning of Rome and of Nero's effort to be 
relieved of the infamy of being believed to have ordered 
the conflagration. This account was written forty years 
after the death of St. Paul. It is as follows, taken from 
Boox XV of the "Annals," revised Oxford translation : 

"Hence, to suppress the rumor (that Nero had ordered 
the burning of Rome) ," says Tacitus, "he falsely charged 
the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, 



—6— 

the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated 
for their enormities. Christus, the founder of that name, 
was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procu- 
rator of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius : but the pernic- 
ious superstition, represt for a time, broke out again, not 
only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but 
through the city of Rome also, whither all things horrible 
and disgraceful flow, from all quarters, as to a common 
receptacle, and where they are encouraged. Accordingly, 
first those were seized who conf est they were Christians ; 
next, on their information, a vast multitude were con- 
victed, not so much on the charge of burning the city, as 
of hating the human race. And in their deaths they 
were also made the subjects of sport, for they were cov- 
ered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death 
by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when day 
declined, burned to serve for nocturnal lights. Nero 
offered his own gardens for that spectacle, and exhibited 
a Circensian game, indiscriminately mingling with the 
common people in the habit of a charioteer, or else stand- 
ing in his chariot. Whence a feeling of compassion arose 
toward the sufferers, though guilty and deserving to 
be made examples of by capital punishment, because they 
seemed not to be cut off for the public good, but victims to 
the ferocity of one man." 

Remembering that the conflagration was in A. D. 64, 
just before the death of Seneca, such excesses must have 
called forth some word of disapproval or remonstrance 
from Nero's old tutor, friend and advisor that contrib- 
uted to Seneca's death a year or more before the execu- 
tion of St. Paul. 

Of Tacitus as a witness, that he wrote what he knew 
were the facts, we may be sure, for he was not in sympa- 
thy with the Christians and called their professions 
and practices "enormities, deserving to be made examples 
of by capital punishment." What these "enormities" 



— 7— 

were, fortunately, we have another witness of that time 
to tell us. 

Within the first century, while proconsul in Pontas and 
Bithynia, Pliny the Younger, (63-113), addressed to the 
Emperor Trajan a letter of the Christians, and this let- 
ter, Trajan's reply, and the passage I have above given 
from Tacitus are the only contemporary references to 
the early Christians to be found in ancient writings, out- 
side of the Bible and Josephus that we can find. 

It is most fortunate that Pliny's letter preserves the 
evidence of the purity of the faith of the Christians and 
tells what their practices were. And, because of its im- 
portance, may I note what is said of him. Gaius Plinius 
Caecilius Secundus, usually known as Pliny the Younger, 
was born at Como in 62 A. D. He was only eight years 
old when his father, Caecilius, died, and he was adopted 
by his uncle, the elder Pliny, author of the Natural His- 
tory. He was carefully educated, studying rhetoric un- 
der Quintilian and other famous teachers, and he be- 
came the most eloquent pleader of his time. 

While still young he served as military tribune in 
Syria, but he does not seem to have taken zealously to 
a soldier's life. On his return he entered politics under 
the Emperor Domitian; and in the year 100 A. D. was 
appointed consul by Trajan and admitted to confidential 
intercourse with that emperor. Later while he was gov- 
ernor of Bithynia, he was in the habit of submitting 
every point of policy to his master, and the correspond- 
ence between Trajan and him, is of a high degree of 
interest, both on account of the subjects discussed and 
for the light thrown on the characters of the two men. 
He is supposed to have died about 113 A. D. * * * 
In his public activities in general, he appears as a man 
of public spirit and integrity, and in his relations with 
his native town he was a thoughtful and munificent bene- 
factor. 

The letters, on which today his fame mainly rests, 



—8- 



were largely written with a view to publication, and were 
arranged by Pliny himself. * * * They deal with 
a great variety of subjects: the description of a Roman 
villa; the charms of country life; the reluctance of peo- 
ple to attend authors' readings and to listen when they 
were present; a dinner party; legacy-hunting in ancient 
Rome ; the acquisition of a piece of statuary ; his love for 
his young wife; ghost stories; floating islands; a tame 
dolphin, and other marvels. But by far the best known 
are those describing the great eruption of Vesivius in 
which his uncle perished, a martyr to scientific curios- 
ity, and the letter to Trajan on his attempts to suppress 
Christianity in Bithynia, with Trajan's reply approving 
his policy. Taken altogether, these letters give an ab- 
sorbingly vivid picture of the days of the early empire, 
and of the interests of a cultivated Roman gentleman of 
wealth. Occasionally, as in the last letters referred to, 
they deal with important historical events; but their 
chief value is in bringing before us the life of a time 
which is not so unlike our own as its distance in years 
might indicate. 

I now give in full this official correspondence to the 
Emperor Trajan, (XCVII Letter) : 

"It is my invariable rule, Sir, to refer to you in all 
matters where I feel doubtful; for who is more capable 
of removing my scrupules, or informing my ignorance? 
Having never been present at any trials concerning those 
who profess Christianity, I am unacquainted not only 
with the nature of their crimes, or the measure of their 
punishment, but how far it is proper to enter into an 
examination concerning them. Whether, therefore, any 
difference is usually made with respect to ages, or no dis- 
tinction is to be observed between the young and tha 
adult; whether repentance entitles them to a pardon; or 
if a man has been once a Christian, it avails nothing to 
desist from his error; whether the very profession of 
Christianity, unattended with any criminal act, or only 



—9— 

the crimes themselves inherent in the profession are pun- 
ishable; on all these points I am in great doubt. In the 
meanwhile, the method I have observed towards those 
who have been brought before me as Christians is this : 
I asked them whether they were Christians; if they ad- 
mitted it, I repeated the question twice, and threatened 
them with punishment ; if they persisted, I ordered them 
to be at once punished; for I was persuaded, whatever 
the nature of their opinions might be, a contumacious and 
inflexible obstinacy certainly deserved correction. There 
were others also brought before me possessed with the 
same infatuation, but being Roman citizens, I directed 
them to be sent to Rome. But this crime spreading (as 
is usually the case) while it was actually under prosecu- 
tion, several instances of the same nature occurred. An 
anonymous information was laid before me containing 
a charge against several persons, who upon examination 
denied they were Christians, or had ever been so. They 
repeated after me an invocation to the gods, and offered 
religious rites with wine and incense before your statue 
(which for that purpose I had ordered to be brought, 
together with those of the gods) and even reviled the 
name of Christ: whereas there is no forcing, it is said, 
those who are really Christians into any of these com- 
pliances; I thought it proper, therefore, to discliarge 
them. Some among those who were accused by a witness 
in person at first confessed themselves Christians, but 
immediately after denied it; the rest owned indeed that 
they had been of that number formerly, but had now 
(some above three, others more, and a few above twenty 
years ago) renounced that error. They all worshipped 
your statue and the images of the gods, uttering impre- 
cations at the same time against the name of Christ. 
They affirmed the whole of their guilt, or their error was. 
that they met on a stated day before it was light and ad- 
dressed a form of prayer to Christ, as to a divinity, bind- 
ing themselves by a solemn oath, not for the purposes of 



—10— 

any wicked design, but never to commit any fraud, theft, 
or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust 
when they should he called upon to deliver it up; after 
which it was their custom to separate, and then reassem- 
ble, to eat in common a harmless meal. From this cus- 
tom, however, they desisted after the publication of my 
edict, by which, according to your commands, I forbade 
the meeting of any assemblies. After receiving this ac- 
count, I judged it so much more necessary to endeavor 
to extort the real truth, by putting two female slaves to 
the torture, who were said to officiate in their religious 
rites; but all I could discover was evidence of an absurd 
and extravagant superstition. I deemed it expedient, 
therefore, to adjourn all further proceedings, in order 
to consult you. For it appears to be a matter highly de- 
serving your consideration, more especially as great 
numbers must be involved in the danger of these prose- 
cutions, which have already extended, and are still likely 
to extend, to persons of all ranks and ages, and even both 
sexes. In fact, this contagious superstition is not con- 
fined to the cities only, but has spread its infection among 
the neighboring villages and country. Nevertheless, it 
still seems possible to restrain its progress. The temples, 
at least, which were once almost deserted, begin now to 
be frequented; and the sacred rites, after a long inter- 
mission, are again revived; while there is a general de- 
mand for the victims, which till lately found very few 
purchasers. From all this it is easy to conjecture what 
numbers might be reclaimed if a general pardon were 
granted to those who shall repent of their error." 

Trajan's reply to Pliny, (XCVIII Letter) is as follows: 
"You have adopted the right course, my dearest Se- 
cundus, in investigating the charges against the Chris- 
tians who were brought before you. It is not possible to 
lay down any general rule for all such cases. Do not go 
out of your way to look for them. If indeed they should 
be brought before you, and the crime proved, they must 



—11- 



be punished; with the restriction, however, that where 
the party denies he is a Christian, and shall make it evi- 
dent that he is not, by invoking our gods, let him (not- 
withstanding any former suspicion) be pardoned upon 
his repentance. Anonymous informations ought not to 
be received in any sort of prosecution. It is introducing 
a very dangerous precedent, and is quite foreign to the 
spirit of our age." 

Pliny's evidence can not be doubted, for it was an of- 
ficial communication from a great man to his superior 
and it is permeated with a desire for truth and justice 
as he saw it, as indeed all his letters evidence. 

Though I have undertaken to give an extra-Biblical 
and non-Jewish, account of the early Christians, I would 
not be pardoned were I to overlook the two passages 
found in Josephus, a Jewish historian, who was born at 
Jerusalem, A. D. 37, and who went to Rome in A. D. 63 
in order to procure the liberation of some of his friends 
who were there imprisoned while Paul was a prisoner. 
There is no evidence, however, that Josephus ever heard 
of the Apostles, and he quite ignores the existence of the 
Christians. They are, indeed, casually mentioned in two 
passages. Near the close of the "Antiquities" we read 
"Now there was about this time, (during the procurator- 
ship of Pontius Pilate, A. D. 25-35) Jesus, a wise man — 
if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of 
wonderful works, and a teacher of such men as receive 
truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of 
the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. 
And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men 
among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that 
loved him at first did not forsake him, for he appeared 
to them alive again, the third day ; as the divine prophets 
had foretold these and ten thousand wonderful things 
concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named 
from him, is not extinct at this day (about A. D. 93) ." 



—12— 

And a little farther on we read of a persecution of the 
Christians, which must have occurred about A. D. 52. 

"This younger Ananus, who took the high-priesthood, 
was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent. He was 
also of the sect of the Sadducees, who are very rigid in, 
judging offenders above all the rest of the Jews. When, 
therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he 
had a proper opportunity to exercise his authority. Fes- 
tus was now dead, and Albinus (who had been named to 
succeed Festus as procurator, was but upon the road.) 
So Ananus assembled the sanhedrim of the judges, and 
brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called 
Christ, whose name was James, and some of his com- 
panions. And when he had laid an accusation against 
them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be 
stoned." 

The genuineness of the former of these passages has 
been seriously questioned. The latter passage may prob- 
ably be accepted as genuine. 

In the "Evidences of the Christian Religion," written 
a short time before the death of Addison, (1719), he sub- 
mits the following as one of his arguments : Vol. Ill Ad- 
dison's Works, Sec. II: 

"We now come to consider what undoubted authorities 
are extant among pagan writers ; and here we must pre- 
mise, that from parts of our Saviour's history may be 
reasonably expected from pagans. I mean such parts as 
might be known to those who lived at a distance from 
Judea, as well as those who were the followers and eye 
witnesses of Christ. 

Such particulars are most of these which follow, and 
which are all attested by some one or other of those 
heathen authors who lived in or near the age of our Sa- 
viour and his disciples. 'That Augustus Caesar had order- 
ed the whole empire to be censured or taxed,' which 
brought our Saviour's reputed parents to Bethlehem : this 



—13- 



is mentioned by several Roman historians, as Tacitus, 
Suetonius and Dion. 'That a great light, or a new star, 
appeared in the east, which directed the wise men to our 
Saviour :' this is recorded by Chalcidius. "That Herod 
the king of Palestine, so often mentioned in the Roman 
history, made a great slaughter of innocent children," 
being so jealous of his successor, that he put to death his 
own sons on that account: this character of him is given 
by' several historians, and this cruel fact mentioned by 
Macrobius, a heathen author, who tells it as a known 
thing, without any mark or doubt upon it. 'That our 
Saviour had been in Egypt: this Celus, though he raises 
a monstrous story upon it, is so far from denying, that 
he tells us our Savior learned the arts of magic in that 
country. 'That Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea; 
that our Saviour was brought in judgment before him, 
and by him condemned and crucified/ this is recorded by 
Tacitus. 'That many miraculous cures, and works out 
of the ordinary course of nature, were wrought by him:' 
this is confessed by Julian the apostate, Porphyry, and 
Hierocles, all of them not only pagans, but confessed ene- 
mies and reprecutors of Christianity. 'That our Saviour 
foretold several things which came to pass according to 
his predictions;' this was attested by Phlegon in his an- 
nals, as we are assured by the learned Origen against 
Celsus. 'That at the time when our Saviour died, there 
was a miraculous darkness and a great earthquake:' this 
is recorded by the same Phlegon the Trallian, who was 
likewise a pagan, and freeman to Adrian the emperor. 
* * * * 'That Christ was worshipped as a God 
among the Christians, that they would rather suffer 
death than blaspheme him; that they received a sacra- 
ment, and by it entered into a vow of abstaining from 
sin and wickedness,' conformable to the advice given by 
St. Paul; 'That they had private assemblies of worship, 
and used to join together in hymns;' this is the account 
which Pliny the Younger gives of Christianity in his 



—14— 

days, about seventy years after the death of Christ, and 
which agrees in all its circumstances with the accounts 
we have in Holy Writ, of the first state of Christianity 
after the crucifixion of our blessed Saviour. 'That St. 
Peter, whose miracles are many of them recorded in holy 
writ, did many wonderful works/ is owned by Julian the 
apostate, who therefore represents him as a great magi- 
cian, and one who had in his possession a book of magical 
secrets left him by our Saviour. 'That the devils or evil 
spirits were subject to them/ we may learn from Por- 
phyry, who objects to Christianity, that, since Jesus had 
begun to be worshipped, Aesculapius and the rest of the 
gods did no more converse with men. Nay, Celsus him- 
self affirms the same thing in effect, when he says, that 
the power which seemed to reside in Christians, proceed- 
ed from the use of certain names, and the invocation of 
certain demons. * * * * 

We have likewise an eminent instance of the inconsis- 
tency of our religion with magic, in the history of the 
famous Aquila. This person, who was a kinsman of the 
emperor Trajan, and likewise a man of great learning, 
notwithstanding he had embraced Christianity, could not 
be brought off from the studies of magic, by the repeated 
admonitions of his fellow-Christians; so that at length 
they expelled him from their society, as rather choosing 
to lose the reputation of so considerable a proselyte, than 
communicate with one who dealt in such dark and in- 
fernal practices. * * * * 

Let us now suppose, that a learned heathen writer, who 
lived within sixty years of our Saviour's crucifixion, af- 
ter having shown that false miracles were generally 
wrought in obscurity, and before few or no witnesses, 
speaking of those which were wrought by our Saviour, 
has the following passage: 'But his works were alwaysj 
seen, because they were true; they were seen by those 
who were healed, and by those who were raised from the 
dead. Nay, these persons who were thus healed, and 



—15— 

raised, were seen not only at the time of their being 
healed, and raised, but long afterwards. Nay, they were 
seen not only all while our Savior was upon earth, but 
survived after his departure out of this world ; nay, some 
of them were living in our days.' 

I dare say you would look upon this as a glorious at- 
testation for the cause of Christianity, had it come from 
the hand of a famous Athenian philosopher. These fore- 
mentioned words, however, are actually the words of one 
who lived about sixty years after our Saviour's crucifix- 
ion, Aristides, an Athenian philosopher at the same 
time, famed for his learning and wisdom, was converted 
to Christianity. As it cannot be questioned that he per- 
suaded and approved the Apology of Quadratus, in which 
is the passage just now cited, he joined with him in an 
Apology of his own, to the same emperor, on the same 
subject. This Apology, though now lost, was extant in 
the time of Ado Vinnensis, A. D. 870, and highly es- 
teemed by the most learned Athenians, as that author 
witnesses." 

In our time, aside from the words of The Book, we de- 
mand little other proof than the progress of human lib- 
erty among the nations and the witness of the Spirit in 
the life of the individual ; yet if we do an humble part in 
handing on the testimony of the pagan witnesses, we 
testify of Jesus and may help some tempest-tossed soul 
to keep the "rudder true." 



DEC 9 1909 



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